


trying to put it into words

by agreattimetobealive



Category: Fashion Model RPF, Taylor Swift (Musician)
Genre: F/F, banana bread, middle of the night baking, overtired dummies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-10
Updated: 2016-08-10
Packaged: 2018-08-07 22:49:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7732846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agreattimetobealive/pseuds/agreattimetobealive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karlie is deliriously jetlagged and really, really wants banana bread. Taylor is sleepy and really in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	trying to put it into words

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this tumblr post](http://agreattimetobealive.tumblr.com/post/148649452295/cool-date-idea) that said "Cool date idea: eating banana bread on the floor at midnight". Yup. 
> 
> Title from You Are In Love by Taylor. 
> 
> This was written really quickly, not really edited, and it's pretty ridic. It's set at some point during the summer of 2014, that magical time when Taylor was always in New York and her and Karlie hung out constantly. (Rating is just for swearing, and that's all on Karlie.)

Taylor wakes up to her alarm clock going off. 

She squints blearily at it for a few sleepy seconds, and then jerks upright in bed. _Shit!_ She overslept. 

It’s almost an hour later than the time she had meant to wake up, which means three things: a) she didn’t hear her alarm; b) her useless cats only jump on her and wake her up when they want to be fed; and c) Karlie’s home. 

Taylor puts her glasses on quickly and runs downstairs. She had wanted to wake up a little bit before Karlie’s flight got in, so she could get things ready for the return of her best friend. (And by things, she means wine and snacks and a movie. Super important best friend things.) 

She had really only meant to nap for an hour or two. It’s hard to schedule best friend time when you're an international pop star and the best friend in question is a very busy jetsetting model, and that’s why Taylor had set an alarm to wake her up at 11:30 pm, and why Karlie agreed to come straight over after her flight touched down. 

Realistically, that’s impractical. Karlie just got off a nine hour flight, Taylor has recording plans the next afternoon. Karlie needs to unpack, Taylor needs to _start_ packing for an upcoming trip to LA, but. It’s been almost a week and she misses Karlie so desperately. 

Karlie’s bag is on the floor by the couch and Taylor curses softly. This was not her plan at all! She wanted to be waiting, to scream at Karlie when she heard her keys in the door, to be the first American to wrap her up in a big hug and welcome her home. 

She dashes quickly down the hallway and discovers...nothing. No Karlie. Not in the bathroom, not in her bedroom. (Well, if Taylor was asleep when Karlie came in, she wouldn’t have blamed her for just heading to bed too.)

Taylor doubles back and looks in the kitchen again, just in case she managed to overlook an impossibly tall ray of sunshine next to the fridge or something. Nope, hm, definitely no Karlie.

Taylor returns to her bedroom to grab her phone, and the second before she walks through the doorway, she has the stupidest thought: Karlie snuck upstairs, around her somehow. Karlie is waiting in her bed. 

She peeks her head through the doorway breathlessly. No Karlie.

That’s fine, because it was a stupid thought, and the blush heating up Taylor’s face is stupid, and while she’s listing stupid things, falling for her best friend is pretty epically stupid too. 

She drags a hand over her face and hates her life a tiny bit and texts Karlie. 

_Hey, are we playing hide and seek? You win, come back please._

Karlie texts back almost immediately. 

_ha! sorry brb! bananas!_

So Karlie hasn’t been abducted by aliens, and that's awesome, but also...what?

Taylor puts in her contacts and then goes back to the kitchen and makes some coffee, and Karlie opens her front door just as she’s taking her first sip. 

Her need to scream and launch herself in Karlie’s direction is hampered by the mug in her hand and the hot coffee in her mouth, but it doesn’t matter, because her and Karlie are always on the same page. 

“Taaaaaaay!” Karlie yells as the door swings closed and then “I missed you I missed you _I missed you!”_ as she races through the foyer and into the kitchen. Taylor barely has time to put down her mug and hold out her arms before Karlie crashes into her, hugging her tightly, one hand wrapped around her back. 

It’s so nice to have Karlie back, and even nicer to be hugged so warmly she never wants to let go, but something is poking her in the hip. 

Freeing herself slightly from Karlie’s grip, Taylor looks down between them. Karlie’s hand, on her hip, is also wrapped around a bunch of bananas. 

“Oh,” she says dumbly. “You have bananas.”

“No, I’m just happy to see you,” Karlie says, and then laughs at Taylor’s blank stare. “Well I told you I was getting bananas!”

“No,” Taylor says, shaking her head, smiling fondly. “No, you just said ‘bananas’. Just the one word, no explanation.”

“Ah,” Karlie nods, waving her bunch of bananas. “The explanation is banana _bread.”_

“Oh well then, now I understand everything.”

“Okay, well, on the plane I was craving banana bread, and then the whole cab ride here I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I dropped my stuff off and went and bought bananas and now I’m going to make some banana bread and eat all of it,” Karlie says in a rush, already opening Taylor’s kitchen cupboards to grab a mixing bowl. She looks back at Taylor over her shoulder. “You wanna help?”

Of _course_ Taylor wants to help Karlie make banana bread in the middle of the night. However, she still feels half asleep from her nap, and she’s just now realizing that Karlie saying “No, I’m just happy to see you” - that was a _dick_ joke. She needs more coffee.

“I need more coffee,” she pleads. “Sit first. Coffee good. Taylor sleepy.” She sinks back into her chair but Karlie doesn’t join her. Karlie is whirling around the kitchen, full of energy that makes Taylor envious. 

And then Karlie starts talking to the bananas, and Taylor realizes that whatever energy Karlie has, it’s that I-haven’t-slept-in-so-long kind, that weird jetlagged delirium that comes with working too much and travelling across the world. 

“You’re gonna be so fucking yummy,” Karlie says - to the bananas - as she carries them to the fridge. “Let’s get some eggs!”

“Karlie,” she says slowly. “Why don’t you lay down for a bit, and I can make you banana bread?”

Karlie clutches her bananas to her chest and looks offended. 

“Okay!” Taylor raises both hands in defense. “You just seem tired, I don’t know.”

“Your _face_ is tired,” Karlie says immediately, and then looks shocked. “No, wait, I didn’t mean that! Your face is _pretty.”_

Karlie reaches out and tries to stroke Taylor’s face. With the bananas.

Taylor shrieks and flinches backwards and falls right off her chair. Okay, well, she’s wide awake _now._

Karlie laughs and holds out a hand to pull Taylor up and when Taylor pouts and says, “it’s not funny,” Karlie leans into her, laughing harder, resting their foreheads together. 

_“Everything_ is funny right now,” Karlie admits. Taylor can tell. 

Okay, well, it seems like the sooner she feeds Karlie some banana bread, the sooner she can make Karlie go to sleep, so, she grabs sugar and flour and joins Karlie back at the counter. 

Karlie is staring at her bananas. 

“You think these’ll work?” she asks Taylor. “I tried to find the overripe-iest ones, but they’re still pretty yellow.”

“We’re going to make them work,” Taylor shrugs. “You’re going to, like, have to stop holding them and mash them though.”

Karlie nods at her like she’s very, very wise. Taylor hands her a fork. 

Taylor mixes together the rest of the ingredients, half paying attention to the task and mostly watching Karlie. 

Karlie, who is peeling and mashing bananas in a bowl with the utmost concentration, while also whispering “yesssss bananas bananas” quietly to herself. Taylor doesn’t even think she knows she’s doing it. 

Taylor loves her so, so much. 

Yes, it’s pretty stupid to fall for your best friend, but when your best friend is beautiful, and funny, and smart, and kind, and an overtired dummy who talks to fruit….well, maybe it would be stupid to _not_ fall for her, just a little bit. 

Here’s what Taylor knows: she gladly gave up sleep to hang out with Karlie. When Karlie is away Taylor’s apartment feels empty and cold, and the _second_ Karlie comes back her whole life lights up. If Karlie says she wants banana bread, there is honestly _nothing_ Taylor wouldn’t do to make that happen for her. Sometimes, she catches Karlie smiling at her when she thinks she won’t get caught, and Taylor maybe kind of sometimes thinks that Karlie feels pretty stupid for falling for _her_ best friend, too. 

“Banana bread,” Taylor sings. Karlie startles, and looks up from her bowl. “That’s what you said, got it stuck in my head, banana bread.” 

(She’s never at her lyrical best when she’s tired.)

Karlie beams at her. 

(Taylor would chop down a whole banana _tree_ for that smile.)

**

Soon enough, the bread goes in the oven, and Taylor returns to her chair and her almost-cold coffee.

Karlie, however, sinks down and sits on the floor in front of the oven. 

“Karlie. Are you _watching_ it bake?” Taylor laughs. 

“Taylor!” Karlie yells. “You don’t understand! I’ve been thinking about banana bread for…” she turns to look at the clock on the wall. “TEN HOURS! Ten hours Taylor! I waaaaaaant it.”

Taylor joins Karlie on the floor and they sit cross legged in front of the oven. 

“It needs to bake for an hour,” Taylor points out and Karlie pouts dramatically. 

“Tell me about your trip, then,” Taylor demands, trying to distract Karlie. 

Karlie shrugs. “It was busy. And good! And I missed you a lot.” Now Karlie’s starting to look exhausted, all the hours she’s been awake catching up to her. 

“I missed you a lot too,” Taylor says. 

“I think I might cut back on the travel and stuff,” Karlie says suddenly, looking down at her hands.

“Wait, why?” 

Karlie shrugs. “I dunno, it’s just a lot. And I...I want to be here.”

Taylor gets the impression that by “here”, Karlie doesn’t mean New York. Or even the States. Karlie means _here._ With Taylor. 

Now Karlie looks kind of sad and Taylor doesn’t like that at _all._ (She gets it though, because she’s pretty sure Karlie is having one of those ‘falling for your best friend is stupid’ moments. She wishes she knew for sure, and she wishes she was brave enough to ask.)

“Hey,” she says, sliding herself closer to Karlie. “Hey, don’t worry about it. You work and I work and we’ll _make_ it work. That’s why we have skype and texts and why I live near a place that sells bananas in the middle of the night.”

Karlie laughs. 

“It’s why I gave you a key,” Taylor presses on, being completely more serious now. “So you can come over at any time, and I really honestly do mean _any_ time. Wake me up at three am, that’s great, I want to hear everything you have to say. Wake me up at four am, even better, because I can never wait to see you.”

That’s a little too honest, and she should back out of this topic of conversation before she says something she’s not ready to, but Karlie is staring at her like that was everything she needed to hear.

“What if I wake you up at five am and make you come running with me?” Karlie asks with a small smile. 

“Oh, well, then we’re not friends anymore.” Taylor quips and Karlie’s smile grows wider. 

“Seriously Karlie, we can do this,” Taylor says, and she’s so tired, she doesn’t even know exactly what that means. Well she does know, but she doesn’t know if Karlie knows, or if they’re having a conversation purely about their friendship, or if it’s turned into something else when Taylor wasn’t paying attention. It’s important that Karlie knows how special she is to Taylor though. She needs Karlie to know that. 

“Oh!” Taylor suddenly remembers. “I have something for you! I bought it while you were gone.” She jumps up and runs to the living room, coming back with a small gift bag. 

“What is this?” Karlie asks happily. “Wait, if it’s banana bread, I will fucking _marry you.”_

“Shut up.” She totally does not want to marry Karlie Kloss, and nobody can prove that she does. And Taylor’s a little embarrassed now, because it’s a really dumb, cheesy gift. 

Karlie reaches into the bag and pulls out a picture in a frame. “Oh, cute!” she says, at the picture of a cat and a dog sitting together. The frame is one of those Best Friends ones, but that’s not why Taylor bought it. She saw it and immediately thought - 

“The dog looks like Joe!” Karlie squeals, and then, _“oh my god_ and the cat is _just like Meredith!”_

Yes, it’s a terrier and a small scottish fold, best friends forever, what are the chances? Taylor was out shopping, trying to distract herself from missing Karlie and had happened across this picture that made her miss Karlie even more. She had to buy it. 

“Because I love you even though you’re a dog person,” Taylor says. 

“Aww,” Karlie sighs, holding the picture to her chest. “Can you imagine how cool it would be if we could make Joe and Meredith be friends?”

“We could take such cute pictures of them!” Taylor exclaims. “I know!”

“We could get them matching outfits!” Karlie yells, excited. 

“And then Joe could help Meredith could kill us both!” Taylor finishes, and Karlie giggles. 

“Not me,” she says smugly. “She likes me more.”

“I _know,”_ Taylor huffs, “and I keep telling her that I’m the one who feeds her everyday, but that doesn’t seem to make a difference.” 

Taylor stands up to grab her phone from the counter, and sits back down next to Karlie. Maybe she’s sitting a little closer than she was at first, or maybe their knees were touching before, Taylor’s not sure. 

“Here,” she tells Karlie, “I took the cutest video of her the other day, she was lying in a sunbeam, like, wiggling around she was so happy, it’s so stupid.” 

Karlie leans in to look at the screen, and their heads bump together. 

“Sorry,” Karlie laughs, and then adjusts herself, wrapping an arm around Taylor so she can lean in closer and they can both see the screen. 

Karlie watches Meredith and Taylor turns her head slightly, very slowly, and watches Karlie. 

Karlie’s face lights up at the video and Taylor could watch her forever. It’s a short clip, and when it ends, Taylor realizes their fingers are slightly touching where they’re both holding onto the phone. Their thighs are pressed together, and Karlie’s arm is warm across her back. 

Karlie hasn’t moved away, just turned her head in toward Taylor’s slightly, and they’re so close. Taylor leans in, just a tiny bit. She doesn’t plan on it but it happens. She thinks maybe Karlie is leaning in a little bit too. 

“So cute,” Karlie says, and she’s probably talking about Meredith in the video, but if she is, then why is she whispering? Taylor smiles. Karlie smiles. Taylor thinks she’s going to lean in more, and mean to this time. Taylor thinks that Karlie won’t stop her. 

Then the buzzer on the oven goes off. 

The girls both jump, and Taylor’s phone clatters to the floor. She scoops it up quickly, and then Karlie is crawling closer to the oven, cooing, “my bread! My sweet sweet banana bread baby!” and Taylor reaches out quickly to grab oven mitts before Karlie dives head first into the oven. 

“Don’t call it your _baby,_ we’re going to eat it,” Taylor complains, pulling the pan out. 

“It’s _our_ baby,” Karlie corrects her. “We made it together.”

Taylor blushes. That...should not make her blush, but the almost-kiss has her flustered. But she totally does not want to have babies with Karlie Kloss, and nobody can prove that she does. 

Taylor rises to put the pan on the counter, but Karlie yells at her in protest. 

“Hey! No, bring it back! Get forks and get back here.”

Taylor gives her a sharp look, but grabs two forks and sits back down on the floor, sliding off one of her oven mitts to lay under the hot dish. She hands a fork to Karlie and watches her warily. 

“That has to cool down,” she warns. 

Karlie shakes her head. “I’m gonna do it.”

“Karlie!”

Karlie moves her fork towards the bread and Taylor quickly blocks it with her own fork. 

“Don’t fight me!” 

“Well I don’t want too, you work out way more than me!” Taylor complains. Karlie could probably kick her ass one-handed. 

Karlie stabs her fork forwards again, too fast this time. She pumps one fist in the air in victory as she sticks her forkfull of hard-won banana bread in her mouth and then immediately whines.

“Oh my god,” she says around her mouthful, “it’s really hot.”

“You’re dumb.”

“Try it, it’s good though!” Karlie mumbles. 

Taylor scoops up a bit of bread and sensibly waits for it to cool a little bit before eating it. It _is_ good. Karlie’s on her fourth bite, shovelling it into her face with enthusiasm.

“It’s _so_ good, right?” she aks, licking her fork. Taylor doesn’t watch her tongue, at all. Taylor’s definitely not affected by that, at _all._

“Really good,” Taylor replies. Her mouth is suddenly very dry. “You know, this isn’t the right way to eat banana bread at all,” she points out, trying to distract herself, grabbing another chunk with her fork. 

“What are you, the banana bread police?” Karlie laughs, stabbing her fork back into the pan. 

“I’m just saying, if you had _patience,_ we could be eating slices. On plates. Like humans.”

“Ha! That doesn’t sound as fun.”

They eat in silence for a bit, the banana bread making Taylor feel warm and sleepy. Or, well, sleepier. Karlie too, it seems. She starts eating slower, making quiet contented sounds, and Taylor can tell she’s practically half-asleep. 

“Bed time yet?” she suggests and Karlie shakes her head firmly.

“Nope, still bread time,” she says determinedly, taking another bite. Taylor laughs at her. 

“Karlie, you’re going to pass out onto the floor.”

“It’s _so_ worth it though,” Karlie whines. “Okay, you know how in interviews, they ask questions like, ‘what would your perfect date night be?’ I’ve always said something outdoorsy, but now I’m changing my answer. This is my perfect date idea. _This._ Eating banana bread on the floor in the middle of the night.”

Taylor’s stomach flips, and it’s not because she’s eaten too much. She’s totally never thought about going on a date with Karlie Kloss, and nobody can prove that she has. She doesn’t know why she says what she says next though.

“Is this a date, then?” She meant for it to come out playfully, but she’s tired, and she’s not thinking, and it’s just a question. Silence spreads across the kitchen. 

“No, Taylor, this isn’t a date,” Karlie says quietly, and Taylor’s heart drops. 

Okay. Well. She was wrong to say anything, and she was wrong to assume Karlie felt the same way, and it’s no big deal but she’s going to move to Africa now and become a farmer and never talk to anyone again because - 

Karlie’s fork clatters to the floor, and then she’s leaning across the pan of banana bread, her hands braced on Taylor’s knees. 

Karlie presses a soft kiss to Taylor’s lips, and then a firmer, longer one.

She leans back. _“Now_ it’s a date,” she says with a small smile, and picks her fork back up off the floor. Taylor blinks at her in wonder. 

Karlie and Taylor are always on the same page, and it turns out that falling for your best friend isn’t so stupid after all.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you were wondering, you just read the word "banana" 36 times. Oop, 37. You're welcome.


End file.
